What to do about Donald?

This “caring fellow” is continuing to slip in the polls…

Aside “why now?” musings on this subject, I have some mixed feelings about the subject… if Rummy is indeed going to be a real political albatross hanging around the neck of this administration, I certainly hope they keep him on. As Senator Levin points out, it’s not like things would magically get better:

"If I thought those policies would change by changing the secretary of defense, I'd be all for it," Levin said on CNN. "But I don't see that that is the ticket to policy changes."

But in thinking this, am I endorsing a sort of scorched earth policy in which I want things to go a bad as they can so the Dems have an opportunity to sweep to power? Close perhaps… I certainly don’t wish ill on the Iraqis or the troops or whoever, but at the same time there is the possibility that switching to a new SecDef will buy the administration some time in the press and public without ever having any positive effects. In other words, I am weighing a short burst of bad results leading to political change in Washington versus a long, slower decline without any good odds that things will get better. Which is the lesser in terms of costs to this nation, its people, and to the Iraqis?

I don’t know for sure, but in the end I don’t think it will matter… I think Bush will keep Rummy on regardless. I think Rove has taken the position that as soon as they get rid of Rummy, they would effectively admit that there are problems in Iraq and that things aren’t as rosy as they say. And admitting they were wrong is something that this administration simply does not do… period.

Amazingly, it seems to work for them to an extent… regardless of the facts on the ground, it serves to cow the media who would have to find the balls to challenge the administration’s assertions. That leads to the wool being kept over the eyes of a great number of the public, and thus keeps public support in line. If they were to can Rummy and admit there was a problem, it would be like throwing a bunch of chum in the water: the media would have an opening they could exploit (no balls required) and the administration would not be able to push other initiatives like social security privatization.

So regardless of my desires (fantastical, pragmatic, or otherwise), I just don’t see it happening…